The catastrophic plague known as the Black Death laid waste to much of the world in the 14th century. But in one of history's greatest paradoxes, it was followed by an unprecedented cultural and economic renewal, a revolution which enabled Europe's global expansion.
Such is the contention of James Belich’s latest book The World the Plague Made, which explores how the Black Death of the 14th century not only halved populations but also helped bring about Europe’s rise.
Photo: supplied
Belich is currently the Beit Professor of Imperial and Commonwealth History at Oxford University in the UK. He is also co-founder of the Oxford Centre for Global History.
He says traditional explanations for the “niggling question” as to why Europe rose to prominence, do not stack up.
“Why did this little continent encompassing five or six percent of the Earth’s surface manage to drag its way up to global hegemony?
“And the traditional explanations given by Europeans for that, which used to be racial superiority, and now tend to be various forms of cultural or institutional superiority, do they really stack up?
“I've always suspected that they don't. So, I went back, looking for the real causes," he told Kim Hill.
"While the Black Death wasn't the only cause, it was the big missing piece in the puzzle."
The black rats which spread the plague hitchhiked on grain ships, he says.
“Hidden on river boats down the Volga and other Russian rivers, and through the other Russian rivers, and make their way to the Black Sea. And from there it goes maritime and spread around Mediterranean Europe before going northward as well.”
And the pandemic carried by these rats hit Europe in a series of waves, he says.
“There's about 30 other big plague strikes by about 1720, in Western Europe, and at other times in Eastern Europe and in the Muslim south.
“It's those repeat hammerings that make the Black Death so influential, make the whole pandemic so influential, in that it's beating subject populations down to the point where they're not just halved at the first strike, but that they stay low for the next 150 years in the case of Western Europe.”
There is good data to suggest the population was halved, he says.
“It comes from a huge variety of sources, sometimes actual counts, sometimes the number of households which tend to understate the population loss because the number of people in a household can go down from five-to-three or something like that as well.
“And it's also supported by a couple of big long-term studies of the populations of both England and Catalonia, which suggests a drop between 1350 and 1500 of 60 percent in those two places.”
The population hit in England was catastrophic, he says. Out of a population of 4.8 million, 2 million died in less than two years.
“It is absolutely amazing, and the human resilience displayed is quite extraordinary. It seems almost incredible that people can overcome a disaster like that.
“But perhaps we need to think in terms of the Japanese and German economies after World War II, they showed extreme resilience.”
While populations were being ravaged economic activity remained strong, he says.
“Within the 50 years of the Black Death, while the population hasn't increased much, you do find economic activity, burgeoning, per capita wealth increasing, international trade increasing, and certain quite dramatic improvements in technology.”
Photo: supplied
There were also more resources to go around, he says.
“There were now twice as many horses, twice as many houses, twice as many fishing spots per capita, as there had previously been, and twice as much capital, twice as much gold and silver.
“So, it's a huge cash injection per capita that accompanies this terrible human disaster. And it puts a premium on labour because labour is now both scarce and increasingly expensive as wages rise.”
Labour shortages in turn drove technological innovation, Belich says.
“Existing sources of energy, non-human sources of energy, suddenly became much more important.
“You get water power used to power blast furnaces, which greatly increase iron production and copper production. And you get water power used in various ways to assist with textile production.
“You get an upsurge in the use of water power and of wind power, particularly in the form of sailing ships.”
There was upturn in the use of gunpowder too, he says.
“Whereas a cavalryman, a knight or a good longbowmen or a good crossbowman takes years to train, an efficient musketeer takes only a few months. So, you save on training time, and therefore, on the total cost of the labour involved.”
Temporarily, the plague massively improved things for common folk, he says.
“It didn't eliminate poverty, but it did reduce the very poor to a large minority from a large majority.
“And it meant for the first time that peasants and wage workers could actually buy things on the market, other than just the most basic needs such as salt and tools.
“For the first time you start seeing things like pepper in working class diets. And things like substantial meat eating amongst poorer town folk.
There is skeletal evidence of an increase in height amongst common folk, he says.
“So there is this golden age, but it only lasts 150 years. It sticks in people's minds, however. And I suspect that this is what folklore talks about, when it talks about before the Norman yoke, and the world we have lost and sort of Arcadias in the past.”
Each wave of plague was followed by a baby boom, he says, but the population struggled to recover.
“So, it's a kind of very sad story of high birth rates, but even higher death rates.”
